]]>We take our annual look back at the top religion and ethics news of the year—Pope Francis and his priorities, such as helping the poor, and also churches divided over homosexuality and same-sex marriage. On our panel: managing editor Kim Lawton, E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, and Kevin Eckstrom of Religion News Service.

]]>In 2011, a researcher for Twitter discovered that bible verses, inspirational messages, and other tweets from religious leaders were incredibly popular among Twitter users. That discovery led the company to begin actively working with members of religious communities. Claire Diaz-Ortiz, who leads social innovation at Twitter and who spent many years abroad working with nonprofits, travels the world helping religious leaders get started on Twitter and offering advice on how to use the technology more effectively. In 2012, she worked with the Vatican to create the “@Pontifex” Twitter account for Pope Benedict XVI. We spoke with Diaz-Ortiz as she met with former White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships executive director Joshua Dubois and National Community Church lead pastor Mark Batterson in Washington, DC about Twitter’s work with religious leaders, the popularity of religious tweets, her experience working with the Vatican, and her advice on the best ways to use Twitter.

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: There were jubilant shouts in an array of languages as Catholics from around the globe gathered in St. Peter’s Square to meet their new pope. Many here say electing Pope Francis has brought Catholics together.

KIM DANIELS (Catholic Voices USA): We all operate in different countries, we all operate in different idioms and different ways but we come together for our faith and this is a real moment of unity.

LAWTON: The fact that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio—Pope Francis—hails from Argentina has generated much excitement.

CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN (Archdiocese of New York): You talk about a booster shot to the Church in the Americas, this is going to be a real blessing.

LAWTON: But it’s more than where he comes from that’s unique. David Gibson of Religion News Service says Pope Francis’s simple lifestyle is something new to the papacy.

DAVID GIBSON (Religion News Service): He also has spoken against the clerical privileges in the Church, and the kind of puffery that can often infect the hierarchy and the cardinals themselves—he’s spoken really powerfully against this. If he puts into action the words that he’s spoken against this kind of clerical and ecclesiastical privilege, he could be a revolutionary figure for the church.

LAWTON: Many Americans came to Rome to be part of the momentous occasion of electing a new pope. Kim Daniels and Ashley McGuire say they wanted to support the Church in prayer. Before the conclave started, they worshiped at a Mass led by Washington cardinal Donald Wuerl in his titular church. Every cardinal is assigned a congregation in Rome, which in effect gives him the right to vote for the next Bishop of Rome, the pope. Wuerl’s church is San Pietro in Vincoli, which claims to have ancient chains that held St. Peter captive. Daniels and McGuire went to St. Peter’s Square every time the white smoke might appear.

ASHLEY MCGUIRE (The Catholic Association): The election of a new pope has only taken place a few hundred times over the past 2,000 years, so even to be alive during this event is something, to actually be here is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I think, you know, for many Catholics, it’s a sort of spiritual pilgrimage to be here and to receive the first blessing from the pope.

LAWTON: Daniels says she couldn’t be more excited about the selection of Pope Francis. She is confident he will work to renew the church.

DANIELS: To have a pope, to have a leader means that we speak in a clear voice, and I think that’s one of the great attractions of Catholicism is that we speak in a clear voice.

LAWTON: Matthew Niggemeyer and Michael Dion are both studying theology at the prestigious Pontifical North American College here in hopes of being ordained as priests. They too say they’re thrilled with the election of the new pope.

MICHAEL DION (Seminarian): What he does is gives us an overall vision to say, to lead us to see who Jesus Christ is, and obviously every pope is going to do that in a different way. And so that will be his gift to the church is how does he help us at the ground level see who Jesus is?

MATTHEW NIGGEMEYER (Seminarian): I think it’s both an historical moment for the church but also a beautiful moment. With every papacy, there’s a new opportunity and a new chapter unfolds in the life of the church. What that chapter holds I don’t really know and I don’t really want to speculate, but I’m excited to see what will come.

LAWTON: For some, a new pope means an opportunity for new directions in the church.

DAVID CLOHESSY (Executive Director, SNAP): (at press conference) In a monarchy, the monarch has extraordinary power.

LAWTON: Representatives of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, were in Rome to push for stronger measures to prevent clergy sex abuse of children. The group released a list of 20 suggested actions for the first 100 days of the papacy. They said this is an opportunity for significant change.

CLOHESSY: We’re a single issue group, this sounds probably dreadfully self-serving to say, but we really do believe that there’s nothing on the next pope’s plate that’s more pressing than the safety of the most vulnerable members of his flock.

LAWTON: They said without new action, the abuse crisis will continue to widen around the world.

CLOHESSY: Because this is essentially like a cancer that’s eating away at the very soul of the church, we believe, and unless the pope really takes quick strong moves to turn things around, the future, especially for children in the church looks very grim.

LAWTON: Other advocates hope for breakthroughs on their issues as well. As pilgrims were awaiting the sight of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel, a coalition of women’s groups raised some pink smoke above the Vatican. They called for an expansion of female leadership roles in the Church, including ordination into the priesthood.

ERIN SAIZ HANNA (Women’s Ordination Conference): We would like to see some dialogue. Pope John Paul II closed dialogue on women’s ordination, so we’re hoping that the new pope will reopen that dialogue, simply talk with us. People are ready for women priests, people are ready for women’s ordination. We know the polls show that the majority of Catholics want women priests so we’re here to lift up those voices.

GIBSON: He’s a man who maintains the traditional Catholic line on sexual morality, abortion, gay marriage, contraception. Nobody expected any pope was going to change those teachings or say anything different, but a new pope has a new style and if he stresses the social justice teachings of the church, the very counter-cultural message of simplicity and poverty, that could really change things without technically changing any teachings.

LAWTON: For many Catholics, a top priority for the new pope will be addressing the Curia, the Vatican’s scandal-plagued bureaucracy in Rome.

DANIELS: I think that everybody knows that there is reform needed in the Vatican bureaucracy and I know that we’ll see some effort towards that end, because reform is something that is necessary so that we can move forward and kindle the faith in places where it’s become something that’s lukewarm.

GIBSON: Pope Francis, Cardinal Borgolio had no real experience in the Roman Curia. He speaks Italian pretty well but is he somebody who can actually come in here and clean house the way some of the cardinals want? That’s a real big question.

LAWTON: McGuire is hopeful the new pope will prioritize communicating the church’s message in the modern world, especially to young people. She hopes Francis, like his predecessor, will use social media to do that.

MCGUIRE: When Pope Benedict joined Twitter, for example, he got over a million followers I think within 24 hours. And so I think you know that’s one way that he can signal to the young generation, you know, here I am, I’m going to be talking with you, I’ll meet you where you’re at and be a part of your world.

LAWTON: Among all the priority hopes and agenda setting, some are asking if the 76-year-old new pope will be able to live up to it all.

GIBSON: How much can a pope do? He’s not a pastor to 1.2 billion Catholics. So much is going to depend on the men he appoints, both in the Vatican and also in the dioceses around the world. What kind of bishops are we going to see coming out of the Vatican in the next few years? That’s really going to chart the course of the Catholic Church over the coming years.

LAWTON: The installation Mass is Tuesday here at St. Peter’s basilica. Then Pope Francis gets to work, amid all the high expectations already surrounding him. I’m Kim Lawton at the Vatican.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/03/15/march-15-2013-pope-francis/15218/feed/2 Father James Martin on the New Popehttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/03/15/march-15-2013-father-james-martin-on-the-new-pope/15239/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/03/15/march-15-2013-father-james-martin-on-the-new-pope/15239/#disqus_threadFri, 15 Mar 2013 19:30:31 +0000http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/?p=15239More →

BOB ABERNETHY, host: Now for more on Pope Francis, we turn to Rev. James Martin. He’s a Jesuit priest, contributing editor at America, a national Catholic magazine, and author of several books including The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. Father Jim, welcome, and congratulations to you and all Jesuits on having one of your own become pope. Does it make any difference to the Jesuit order, I mean, aside from being proud, will it make any difference, as you see it, to how life goes for you?

REV. JAMES MARTIN, S.J. (America Magazine): I think it will. We’re all very excited and very joyful to have one of our own as pope. I think it will help a lot in terms of Jesuit vocations. There have more articles on the web and in print about what’s a Jesuit in the last few days than I think in the last five years so it’s a great shot in the arm in terms of Jesuit vocations, I think.

ABERNETHY: Vocations meaning people wanting, young men wanting to become Jesuits.

MARTIN: That’s right. You know, more interest in the Jesuits means more young men will consider joining.

ABERNETHY: What about the Pope himself? What can we say about how being a Jesuit might affect him as pope?

MARTIN: Well I think it’s very important. Jesuit training, the formation program is very long. He’s had a lot of different kinds of experiences in terms of working with the poor for example, living the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, living in community and we can see that by his simple lifestyle and the way that so much of his ministry already as pope has been by focusing on the poor by for example taking the name of Francis, you know, recalling Francis of Assisi so I think the Jesuit spirituality and also his Jesuit experience will really help inform what he does as pope.

ABERNETHY: And what does it mean for American Catholics as a whole? Many of them have left the church. What can the pope do to help bring them back?

MARTIN: Well I think the most important thing that the pope can do is really just preach the Gospel clearly and boldly. I think, rescinding from some of the hot button topics, what brings more people back to the church is inviting them into a relationship with God and a relationship with Jesus Christ and so the better he can do that, the more people will come back.

ABERNETHY: But there’s no possibility as you see it of any change on those hot button issues, like priestly celibacy and women priests, that kind of thing.

MARTIN: Yeah, I don’t think so. Not from Pope Francis. He is very much along the lines of Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict in adhering to all of those church traditions.

ABERNETHY: What about giving more authority to local bishops? Might that make possible, if, if he could do that, or if that were done, might that make possible certain things being OK in one place but not necessarily in another?

MARTIN: Well it could. I think there have been some early signs by the way he’s worked with the bishops and treated the cardinals. You know, when he was coming back after his election, he got in the same bus that all of the other cardinals got in. So he’s very much a man of the people and that may mean a little more, what Catholics call, collegiality, giving more authority to local bishops. So, it could. I think time will tell.

ABERNETHY: And what about his relationship with the Vatican bureaucracy? Many people think the curia, the bureaucracy, needs a lot of change and a lot of reform. Is he tough enough to bring that about?

MARTIN: I can say as a Jesuit and, having heard from my Jesuit brothers what he was like as the provincial or regional superior of Argentina, he is certainly a man who can make tough decisions. He is definitely not afraid to ruffle feathers. And so, for those people who are asking does he have a backbone, the answer is yes. So he may be the very guy to come in and reform a lot of the problems that are going on in the Vatican curia right now. And that may be one thing that the cardinals saw that led to his election.

ABERNETHY: And, very quickly, the sex abuse scandal and cover–ups seem to continue indefinitely. Do you think there’s something that a new pope, this pope, can do to kind of get over that?

MARTIN: Well, I think that’s the number one problem facing the church, frankly. We can’t preach the Gospel if people see us as not addressing those problems. So one of the things he can do is follow the pattern of the US bishops in terms of putting in safe environment programs and really trying to just change the church, removing anyone who is credibly accused with a crime so I really think he needs to focus on this, laser like, in the first few months, if not days, of his papacy. So, I’m hoping that he really focuses on that really important issue.

]]>Watch a March 1, 2013 panel discussion held in Mullen Memorial Library at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and moderated by Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly managing editor Kim Lawton and Catholic News Service reporter Pat Zapor. Panelists are Ambassador Miguel Diaz, University Professor of Faith and Culture at the University of Dayton and the most recent U.S. ambassador to the Holy See; Dr. Margaret Melady, vice chair of the board of trustees of Catholic Distance University and former president of the American University in Rome; Dr. Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America; and Kim Daniels, coordinator of Catholic Voices USA.

BOB ABERNETHY: The 77-million-member Anglican Communion is getting a new leader. Later this month, Justin Welby will take his seat as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader to Anglicans and Episcopalians around the world. Kim Lawton was in the UK this week and spoke with Welby about this important moment in these two Christian traditions.

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: At the historic Coventry Cathedral, Archbishop Justin Welby was attending a conference this week about faith and reconciliation. Welby told me he’s watching the events in Rome closely. He says he believes Catholics and Anglicans have much in common, despite their sometimes tense relationship.

ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN WELBY, Archbishop of Canterbury: We have major differences over the ordination of women, things like that. We have historically different understandings of the nature of the church and the authority of the church. But we have a common basis around the need to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

LAWTON: He says he hopes dialogue between the two will continue. Welby will be enthroned as the next Archbishop of Canterbury on March 21, when he officially takes the helm of one of the largest bodies of Christianity. The former oil-executive-turned-clergyman acknowledges it’s interesting that the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church will both have new leaders within the next few weeks.

WELBY: I don’t read too much into it. Benedict XVI was a very remarkable, has been a very remarkable pope. He took over at the age of 78; that’s not the age which most of us would feel we wanted to take on a major new task, and he gave himself, he spent himself on this. But I do look forward very much to meeting the new pope later in the year, and I’m confident that we will find in each other a common love for Christ.

LAWTON: Archbishop Welby says he hopes to attend the installation ceremony for the new pope in Rome depending on when it takes places.

I’m Kim Lawton at England’s Coventry Cathedral.

ABERNETHY: We’ll have more of Kim’s interview with the new Archbishop of Canterbury in coming weeks.

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: Benedict said he is resigning “for the good of the church.”

REV. MARK MOROZOWICH (Dean of Theology, Catholic Univ. of America): Isn’t that a profound sign of his own humility in that he was able to recognize when, you know, it just was more than he could handle? And instead of letting just others do the job, he viewed very strongly that we needed somebody in that position that would really be able to take the helm.

MAUREEN FERGUSON (The Catholic Association): I think this decision was made out of love for the church and her needs.

LAWTON: But it was an almost unprecedented decision.

SISTER MAUREEN FIEDLER (Host, “Interfaith Voices”): In my lifetime, popes have died in office. One has never resigned. And then I all of a sudden discovered that, well no wonder, it’s been almost 600 years since the last pope resigned in 1415.

LAWTON: Experts say Benedict’s decision highlights how the nature of the papacy has changed.

PROF. CHRISTOPHER RUDDY (Catholic Univ. of America): It’s become much more demanding and much more public. You’re in print, you’re on video. Sixty years ago, Pope Pius XII would not have had the same demands on him in any way.

MOROZOWICH: Maybe it’s not so much that their job has changed, but the expectations have changed. The immediacy. There’s so many things that we as a society have developed into this instantaneous culture and that no longer are we waiting for a letter to arrive from Rome. When we get an instantaneous mass delivered message, I mean that’s a whole shift.

LAWTON: As the news of Benedict’s impending departure took hold, people inside–and outside–of the church began offering assessments of his legacy.

MOROZOWICH: I think that Pope Benedict brought a refreshing wonderful attention to theology.

FERGUSON: Pope Benedict has been, has had great clarity in his teaching on issues with respect to the sanctity of life, with respect to marriage, with respect to religious liberty.

FIEDLER: He certainly was in tune with modern technology, even joining Twitter just a few weeks ago and he was an environmental pope. He was often dubbed the Green Pope and he took climate change seriously and he talked about that so I think those are positive things.

LAWTON: But Sister Maureen Fielder, host of the public radio program “Interfaith Voices,” says Benedict’s papacy will be largely viewed by how he dealt with the clergy sex abuse crisis.

FIEDLER: I think probably the biggest disappointment with Benedict was his inability to adequately handle the sex abuse scandal and to specifically deal with the prelates, the bishops who covered up those crimes, a lot was done with priests, almost nothing has been done with bishops and I think that remains a scandal for a lot of Catholics.

LAWTON: Other Catholics praise his efforts on that front.

FERGUSON: He took that scandal head on and implemented all kinds of new protocols to address that issue once and for all. So I see great hope on that issue going forward.

LAWTON: Speculation about Benedict’s possible successor continues as people put forward the qualifications the College of Cardinals should consider.

RUDDY: Certainly they’ll want somebody who is a good communicator and particularly has linguistic competence. You’ll need to know Italian, that’s the daily language of the Vatican. English and Spanish would be, would be extremely helpful.

MOROZOWICH: I think of center, center importance is a deeply spiritual and prayerful person. This is why people look to the Church for their spiritual nourishment. So that’s central. But the Pope has to be a man of the world in a certain sense. He has to have a knowledge of different cultures. We keep raising the bar in so many ways.

FIEDLER: I personally would like to see a pope who would take seriously the message of the second Vatican Council, develop greater collegiality in the church, perhaps even democratization in the church. A pope who respects the human equality of all persons, man and women, and begins to make suitable changes in the church in that direction.

LAWTON: But Father Morozowich says whoever is chosen is not likely to make sweeping changes.

MOROZOWICH: So a new Pope will bring new vigor, will bring his personality, his personal gifts. He will continue, though, the tradition of the Church.

LAWTON: People of other faiths say the selection of a new pope matters to them too.

RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism): The quality of Catholic Jewish relations has been a kind of litmus test for us in terms of the openness of peoples of different religions to the Jewish community and to cooperative understanding and endeavor, and therefore it feels of vital concern to us.

HARIS TARIN (Muslim Public Affairs Council): What he says matters in a lot of communities and so the stature of the pope is extremely important in that sense. But also the fact that we live in a very small world when it comes to interaction.

BISHOP MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE (Episcopal Diocese of Washington): The heart and soul of humanity is lived out among people of faith in every tradition and so I will be joining the world in praying for the next pope.

LAWTON: And for the world’s more than one billion Catholics, the selection will have a personal dimension as well.

RUDDY: What makes the pope the pope is that he is held by Catholics to be the successor of St. Peter and in that sense he carries on Peter’s role of uniting the church, of being the point of unity for all of the world’s bishops and all the world’s Catholics. In some senses he belongs to everybody in the church.

FERGUSON: As Catholics, of course, we have great affection for our holy father, we look to him as a father and it’s, it’ll be exciting to meet our new pope.

BOB ABERNETHY, host: Pope Benedict XVI stunned this world this week with the surprise announcement that he has decided to resign—the first pope to step down in 600 years. Our coverage today includes analysis from two experts on the church, and it begins with reaction from Catholics and non-Catholics alike, gathered by our managing editor, Kim Lawton.

Kim and I are joined now by Father Tom Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, and David Gibson of Religion News Service, author of The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. David is in New York. Welcome to you both. David, let me begin with you. What do you think the cardinals will be looking for most eagerly when they meet to choose a successor?

DAVID GIBSON (Religion News Service): Well, Bob, I think they’re going to take for granted that whoever they choose is going to be an orthodox cardinal and follower of pretty much the line of Benedict XVI and the previous popes in terms of doctrine and all the hot-button issues that we often like to talk about. I think they are also looking at someone who might be a bit younger. Some of the cardinals have said they don’t want to elect anyone who’s over 70. Benedict XVI was 78 when he was elected eight years ago. But I think the big choice really facing them is whether they are going to go outside of Europe really for the first time in the modern era, the first time almost ever, and pick someone from the southern hemisphere, from Latin America, Asia, or Africa, really where the Catholic Church is booming, which is the real future of the church there, and are they going to pick a pope who reflects that growth?

ABERNETHY: Tom?

REV. THOMAS REESE, S.J. (Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University): Well, I think the cardinals are going to be looking for three things. One, somebody who they think will make a good pope, which means somebody who agrees with them on their values and what they think of the vision of the church. The second is someone that they can have a personal relationship with. I mean they’d really like to have a friend in the pope, and third, I think they want someone who will be accepted and liked in their own country. I mean you think, for example, of the cardinals that live in countries with lots of Muslims. You don’t want the pope saying something that upsets Muslims because that would not be good for the people in their country.

ABERNETHY: And, whoever it is, Tom, is there any possibility at all that some of the things that Americans, especially American liberals, want most, which are things like permission for there to be married priests?

REESE: No.

ABERNETHY: No possibility at all?

REESE: I don’t think so. You have to remember that more than half of the cardinals who are going to choose the next pope were appointed by Benedict, and the rest of them were all appointed by John Paul II, and they did what you or I would do if we were pope. They appointed people who basically agree with them on the issues facing the church, so anyone who was in favor of women’s ordination, or changing birth control, or married priests would never have made it into the College of Cardinals.

KIM LAWTON, managing editor: One of the things I’ve found really interesting as I was talking with people this week was how the questions of who we are going to pick also lead to questions about the nature of the papacy and it’s just become so big. The pope has to be a diplomat, he has to be a spiritual leader, he has to know how to tweet. Can you find one person that can do all of that? And, David, is the situation today also affecting how we look at the papacy?

GIBSON: I think very much. You have to understand, I think this resignation by Benedict XVI really is a groundbreaking move in the history of the papacy, in the modern history of the papacy. It hasn’t happened in 600 years. But it really goes to demystify the pope in many ways and restore the idea that this is about the office, the successor of Saint Peter, not just this cult about a certain person who has kind of been elevated to almost a demigod in the eyes of so many. So it really refocuses the church’s attention on what the job of the pope is. And, as you say, it’s a really big job. It’s a 24-7 job now in a way that it never was before. I think the question is, can you find a pope who knows how to delegate, who knows how to pick really able administrators who can do a lot of these things for him, and a pope who knows how to consult in a way that Benedict did not perhaps.

REESE: I think Kim and David have made excellent points, and in the last two conclaves what they’ve done is they’ve elected the smartest man in the room, and the question today is should they do that again or should they elect someone who will listen to all the other smart people in the church? Should they look for someone, for example, who has more diplomatic experience? They’ve tended to stress the role of the pope as teacher as opposed to the role of the pope as someone who brings people together, who develops and works to create consensus, who’s really strongly pushing dialogue.

ABERNETHY: The pope needs to have a pretty keen sense of public relations, too, and there’s some evidence that’s been missing lately. Is that high on the list?

REESE: I think it needs to be. I mean, the papacy, whether you like it or not, you’re under constant view by the whole world. You’re on a world stage 24-7, and if you say things that don’t make sense to people or that come across badly to people, it causes great problems for the church.

ABERNETHY: David, there’s kind of a buzz word around called “new evangelization.” I gather than means evangelizing and going in, preaching the Gospel more vigorously, perhaps. What does that imply, and what does that imply particularly for the United States?

GIBSON: Well, the church, the Vatican, and the cardinals and bishops in the United States know that the Catholic Church in the modern world has to do a better job at preaching and evangelizing. It’s a marketplace out there in a way that it never was before. You know, people can be born Catholic and raised Catholic, but that’s not exactly the choice they’re going to make as adults. So they have to be out there competing. But again, it’s that word, preaching. Is it just about words? As Tom said, they elected the smartest man in the room the last two times out. Is it just about the words you use? Or is preaching and evangelizing also about actions? Do they need really a pastor, someone who can communicate through actions and gestures as much as through words?

REESE: I think Pope Benedict expressed it very well. He said that Christianity should not be presented as a series of “nos”, but as a “yes,” a yes to love, a yes to life, a yes to justice and peace. You know, the principal job of the pope and of the whole church is to figure out how to preach the Gospel in a way that is understandable and attractive to people in the twenty-first century, especially to young people who are just turned off by religion.

ABERNETHY: Does that imply a kind of, what we think of as evangelical Protestantism, very vigorous, loud music, plenty of excitement? Can we look for that in South America, at least, from the church?

REESE: We’re seeing it in South America. We’re seeing it in Africa, with music and dance. We have to adapt Christianity—well, better put we have to express Christianity in different cultures in different ways. Remember Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. What they did in their time was take the best intellectual thought, for Augustine it was Neoplatonism, for Aquinas it was Aristotle, and express Christianity to their generations using those philosophers. Thomas Aquinas’s books were burnt by the bishop of Paris. We shouldn’t just quote Augustine and Aquinas. We should imitate them and figure out how to express Christianity in the best way that we can in this century.

LAWTON: I have a question that I wanted to get in. Also, just this very curious situation that we’re finding ourselves in, we will find ourselves in, where we’re going to have two popes or the pope emeritus and the new pope. That could create some tensions, that could in some ways, undermine the new pope, if the other pope is still around. Benedict says he’s going to be hidden from public life, but David, what—how do you see that working out? What pitfalls do you see?

GIBSON: I see it as becoming a real problem down the road. Initially, look, this was such a surprise to everyone. It shouldn’t have been a shock, really. Benedict sent a lot of signals that this was going to happen. If anyone could do it, it was this kind of very orthodox pope resigning, this kind of Nixon-to-China move almost, but—and it was natural that there was no real plan for what you would do with a pope emeritus. So, for security reasons and a lot of other reasons, I think it made sense that he should live inside the Vatican, at least at first, but I think it is going to become a problem down the road, especially if he continues to write and to publish some of his writings.

ABERNETHY: David, one of those that is mentioned from time to time as a possible pope is the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan. Is there anything to that, you think?

GIBSON: I think it’s a great story. Don’t think it’s going to happen.

ABERNETHY: Okay. Our thanks to Father Tom Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and David Gibson of Religion News Service.

We want to revisit now a story we ran some years ago, on the process the cardinals follow when they choose a new pope. Again, Kim Lawton reports.

]]>After Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he is resigning February 28, 2013, the Roman Catholic Church is preparing for a conclave, where cardinals under the age of 80 will gather to elect his successor. Managing editor Kim Lawton looked at the centuries-old process of selecting the pope.

KIM LAWTON, correspondent: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says his disciple Peter is the rock upon which the church will be built. He tells Peter, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” The Roman Catholic Church teaches that its leader, the pope, is part of an unbroken succession from Peter. Selecting Peter’s successor is a momentous occasion.

JOHN L. ALLEN, JR. (National Catholic Reporter): What you have in a conclave is you have a moment of change on a world scale that the change in no other office, the change of no other leader, comes close to replicating. The transition in American presidents does not have the gravity, does not have the global significance that a change in the papacy does.

LAWTON: The details of the process have evolved greatly over the centuries. Under current rules, after the death or resignation of a pope, cardinals under the age of 80 have between 15 and 20 days to gather in Rome for the conclave. Until a new pope is elected, the College of Cardinals governs the church, but with limited powers.

REV. THOMAS REESE, S.J. (Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown Univ.): When the cardinals meet to elect a pope, first of all they’re locked up so that they cannot be influenced by anything from the outside, and also so they can maintain secrecy. There will be no cell phones, no radios, no newspapers, no telephones, no communication with the outside world.

LAWTON: Every day, the cardinals assemble in the nearby Sistine Chapel, under the watchful eyes of Michelangelo’s restored frescoes. One of the first orders of business is swearing an oath of absolute secrecy. Under modern church rules, the conclave area is swept for bugs and other surveillance devices.

ALLEN: The cardinals are not supposed to be casting votes based on their image or based on political considerations, but based on who they really think is best for the church. And the notion is that doing that behind closed doors makes that somehow easier, makes that more possible.

LAWTON: Sequestered inside the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals vote by paper ballot, guided, the church says, by the Holy Spirit.

REESE: They have a small piece of paper, and on it they write the name of the person that they are voting for. Then they fold that piece of paper in two and hold it in their hand and march up one by one, holding it in the air so that everyone can see that there’s only one ballot here.

LAWTON: Selected “cardinal-scrutineers” count the number of ballots, making sure they correspond with the number of cardinals in the room. They then tally the ballots aloud. The pope is chosen by a two-thirds vote. There can be four votes a day. After three days, the voting can be suspended for a day of further prayer and discussion. Technically, any baptized male can be elected pope, although since the fourteenth century he has come from the College of Cardinals. After each round of voting, the ballots are burned in a special stove that has been used since the beginning of the twentieth century.

REESE: If the ballot had not elected a pope, they would put chemicals in to make the smoke black. If a pope is elected, they put certain chemicals into the stove with the ballots, so that the smoke comes out white.

LAWTON: Outside, people gather in St. Peter’s Square to pray and to await the word from the conclave. Modern popes have made their own changes that could have a huge impact on the future. In 1975, Paul VI instituted the age limit of 80 and expanded the number of voting cardinals. John Paul II and Benedict XVI further expanded and internationalized the college of cardinals.

ALLEN: The odds of a pope who is not European and not Italian are much more than they ever have been, simply because numerically the blocs from those non-European places are much larger and therefore have the political capacity to put forward their candidates.

LAWTON: Another factor for the conclave is the proliferation of the media, which challenges the vow of secrecy, and perhaps also shapes the choices.

REESE: It’s going to have to be someone who is at ease being the center of attention with the media. That’s just part of the reality of being pope today, whether the church likes it or not.

LAWTON: Inevitably, observers are making up their short lists of candidates, lists that have already been revised many times. And beyond the politics and the process and the pageantry, for the world’s Catholics the conclave is ultimately a holy endeavor.

]]>Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, reflects on Pope Benedict’s impact on Jewish-Catholic relations. “There were some bumps in the road, some moments that created tension…but they clearly were aberrations in a path that strengthened relations between the Church and the Jewish community,” he says.